Local student earns children's book award

Posted: Friday, May 09, 2008

PULLMAN, Wash. - Brittany Sarkesian, of Juneau, earned a medal in the Washington State University 2008 Inga Kromann Book Awards for her book, "Firefly Messages." Students receive medals based on their performance for writing and designing a children's book.

Sarkesian is a junior majoring in education at Washington State. She is the daughter of Elizabeth and Wayne Hixson, of Juneau, and Michael Sarkesian, of Geneva, Switzerland.

She used scratchboard - thin pieces of multi-colored paper coated with black ink - for her book about a girl who confides in a flickering friend as she waits for her father to come home from war.

"During the course of the project, I learned a lot about audience," she said. "I wanted to make sure that children who read my story could connect with the heroine."

This is the fifth year for the competition but the first time the competition has been named for and sponsored by former faculty member Kromann.

The judges, who were Pullman public school teachers and librarians, also gave honor awards to three other entrants: Jamie MacKintosh, a junior from Bellevue, Wash.; Lindy Paulson, a senior from Colfax, Wash.; and Sarah Poulsen, a junior from Vancouver, Wash.

The winners received bookstore gift certificates and bound copies of their entries. Copies of the books also go to the Brain Education Library.